Bad times for politicians, both national and local

First came the pathetic end to the slow-motion train wreck known as the government shutdown. Then came an avalanche of scandals closer to home.

We begin in Washington.

President Barack Obama was elected in 2008 on a pledge to make health care accessible and affordable to the estimated 47 million uninsured. After a bitter, exceptionally partisan battle, the Affordable Care Act, better known as “Obamacare,” passed the House and Senate and was quickly signed into law.

Legal challenges resulted in a Supreme Court decision in the president’s favor.

In 2012, President Obama was re-elected by a respectable majority with Obamacare as a major issue in the campaign. The president and Democrats have every right to say this is a settled issue.

However, in 2010, and again in 2012, millions of Americans also elected members of Congress who ran on a platform pledging to repeal the ACA.

Americans have spoken out of both sides of our mouths on this — hence, the ugly brawl in Washington.

Obamacare is a seriously flawed law for the simple reason it does not live up to its name. While health care may be more accessible, it’s not more affordable.

With that said, the Republicans, led by Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas and the Tea Party caucus in the House, went to war with an idiotic strategy: shut the government down and somehow the country will blame the president.

To nobody’s surprise they got their heads handed to them.

Not only was Obamacare not repealed, the shutdown has seriously damaged the Republican brand nationally. In California, malathion is more popular than the GOP.

This isn’t a good thing.

Every healthy society has a viable opposition party. California doesn’t. Consider this: Jerry Brown is the voice of reason in Sacramento. Nothing you’ll see on Halloween will be scarier than that.

Had Republicans been patient the nation’s attention would have been on the multiple blunders surrounding the ACA rollout. The case for repeal would have been strengthened going into next year’s midterm elections.

The Republican Party wasted a golden opportunity to lead the country toward a more fiscally responsible future by choosing to tilt at windmills.

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Sen. Cruz launched a legislative kamikaze attack but only succeeded in sinking his own ship.

The president didn’t do much better.

Rather than try and heal the breach, President Obama chose to launch into an angry hyperbole-laden lecture blaming Republicans for nearly every social ill while taking zero responsibility for his share of a U.S. debt that has hit a staggering $17 trillion and counting. Is that even a number?

What’s the point of having a debt ceiling if every time we reach it we raise it?

Try doing this with your credit cards. Max them out, then ask for a new credit line, max that out, and see what kind of response you get from Visa.

Closer to home Los Angeles City Councilman Jose Huizar was slapped with a very public lawsuit alleging sexual harassment by his former deputy chief of staff, Francine Godoy. While Huizar denies thecontentions, the married father of four did acknowledge a “consensual relationship” with Godoy.

Who knows? Is Huizar the victim of a jilted lover out for revenge? Or is he L.A.’s version of San Diego’s grabby-ass former mayor, Bob Filner?

What we do know is his district is now represented by a seriously distracted councilman who was a no-show last Friday.

And on Friday, the chief of staff to L.A. Councilman Mitch Englander was hit with a sexual harassment suit from a former deputy that described a culture of “discriminatory and harassing conduct” in Englander’s office.

In San Bernardino, one city councilman resigned after pleading guilty to a perjury charge while another awaits a court date on charges of stalking and identity theft.

L.A. County Sheriff Lee Baca was found personally liable for a beating in the county jail and might have to pay $100,000 out of pocket.

The new quarter-billion dollar runway at LAX is crumbling, the billion dollar iPad giveaway at LAUSD is slowing to a crawl, and the DWP decided to let the IBEW’s own accountants audit the two “nonprofits” set up by the DWP to funnel 40-plus million dollars in ratepayer money into programs run by the union.

And all this was just last week!

L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti doesn’t need a panel of experts to figure out why we have low voter turnout. He just needs to look around.